Faculty

Jan Davies MSc MD FRCPC FRAeSProfessor of Anesthesia and

Adjunct Professor of Psychology, University of CalgaryJan has worked and undertaken research in system safety for more than 30 years in healthcare and aviation. She has been a consultant to various Canadian provincial medical examiners and coroners, Health Canada, the Canadian Patient Safety Institute, and the Health Quality Council of Alberta. She is co-author of the Canadian Patient Safety Dictionary and of Systematic Systems Analysis: A Practical Approach to Patient Safety Reviews. Her research areas include reactive and proactive methods of investigation at the system and individual levels, as well as the application of Human Factors concepts to healthcare safety and quality.

Margot Harvie RN BN MEdDirector, Collaborative Learning & Education,

Health Quality Council of Alberta (HQCA)Margot is a paediatric nurse by background, has worked in various positions related to quality and patient safety since 2002, and has focused on quality and patient safety education for the past six years. She played an instrumental role in development and early implementation of a provincial quality and safety curriculum in her previous role as Director for Quality Safety Education & Training with Alberta Health Services. Margot is part of the core development team for the HQCA’s Quality & Safety Education Framework and is a co-coordinator for the Certificate in Patient Safety & Quality Management course at the University of Calgary.

Donna MacFarlane RNLead, Health System Improvement,

Health Quality Council of Alberta (HQCA) Donna is an experienced healthcare professional who worked for over 20 years as an emergency room nurse and then began working in the former Calgary Health Region quality and safety department as a Clinical Safety Lead with one of her main roles being patient safety investigations. She joined the Health Quality Council of Alberta as a Patient Safety Lead in 2011. Donna has done a number of patient safety reviews ranging from single patient events to large-scale multi patient reviews and prospective system reviews.

Health Quality Council of Alberta (HQCA)Carmella originally trained and worked as a Respiratory Therapist before moving into the fields of quality improvement and patient safety. Before joining the HQCA as the Quality & Safety Review Team Leader, Carmella was the Administrative Director for the Ward of the 21st Century at the University of Calgary. Prior to that, she worked for the former Calgary Health Region / AHS for 14 years, first as a Respiratory Therapist, then in a number of quality and safety leadership roles including Manager of Clinical Safety Evaluation and the provincial Director for the Safety Reporting System. Her primary interests are in systems safety and in conducting both prospective and retrospective system-level safety reviews. Carmella has done a number of safety reviews, including leading large-scale multi-patient reviews and prospective system reviews. Carmella is co-author of Systematic Systems Analysis: A Practical Approach to Patient Safety Reviews and has experience teaching and mentoring others on the topic of patient safety reviews.

Ward Flemons MD FRCPCProfessor of Medicine, University of CalgaryWard was VP of Quality, Safety & Health Information in the former Calgary Health Region for four years. He was a member of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Patient Safety Institute and is Medical Director to the Health Quality Council of Alberta (HQCA). He is the Patient Safety Education lead for the Medical Ward of the 21st Century (W21C) Research & Innovation Centre at the University of Calgary, and co-lead of the HQCA’s Quality & Safety Education Framework.

Nishan Sharma MSc EdD Education Lead, W21C, University of Calgary
Nishan is a medical educator specializing in patient safety at W21C.
After over a decade’s experience teaching undergraduate science,
nursing, and medical students, he earned his doctorate in education in
2009, where his work focused on curricular change in medical schools.
His current research interests focus on teaching and learning in
undergraduate medicine and the integration of information technology
into medical education, and he is an advocate for decreasing sedentary behaviour in the workplace. A qualitative and mixed methods researcher, he
also coordinates educational activities and is involved in daily
operations at W21C.